MacGregor develops better way to stow loose lashings

AUGUST 18, 2015 — Cargotec's MacGregor subsidiary has developed a 40 ft flat rack loose lashings storage system that is designed to make better use of available deck space.

"An overall trend for twistlocks, stackers and midlocks is their weight reduction," says Perttu Jokinen, Lashing Portfolio Manager, Cargo Stowage and Securing Systems, MacGregor. "This can often lead to the maximum volume of a storage bin being reached before its maximum payload. Therefore, we have looked carefully at capacity in terms of volume when designing our new storage bins and flat racks."

MacGregor's new flat rack system meets ISO standards and can accommodate a total of 16 storage bins that are color-coded for twistlocks, midlocks, stackers and damaged products. Two flat racks stacked on top of each other and connected with twistlocks are the equivalent dimensions of a high cube container (9'6", 2,896 mm).

The flat rack is operated as a standard container and other containers can be loaded on top of it. As usual for flat racks, it should only be lifted from the top corner fittings with a spreader lifting frame or from the bottom corner fittings with suitable lifting gear.

The new flat rack has been approved by classification society DNVGL according to the requirements of the International Convention for Safe Containers (CSC).

When empty, the flat rack's weight is 2,500 kg, and it has a maximum payload of 32,000 kg.

The bins come in two different sizes with basic dimensions corresponding to MacGregor's previous SB-8/1 and E16M storage bins.